(57) A two piece, hard shell gelatin capsule wherein an ultrasonic bond extends along a portion only of the circumferential overlapping sections, the bond being sufficient to resist separation of capsule portions from each other without causing damage to either capsule portion.
The method for ultrasonically welding the capsules together includes randomly storing filled capsules within a hopper and while moving the capsules from the hopper to an ultrasonic welding station, the capsules are oriented in such a way that the overlapping section of each capsule is presented to the ultrasonic welding station in the same relative position.
The apparatus for ultrasonically securing the body and cap portions of gelatin capsules together includes a frame, a hopper mounted on the frame for storing a plurality of capsules, in the filled condition, in a random manner. A mechanism is mounted on the frame for ultrasonically securing the body and cap portions of the capsules together and means are provided for conveying the capsules from the hopper to the ultrasonic securing means while orienting each of the capsules to position the overlapping section of the ultrasonic securing means at the same relative position for each of the capsules.